• The “Archives Générales du Royaume” (National Archives of Belgium) and the “Archives de l’État dans les Provinces” (State Archives in the Provinces), in other words the State Archives are a federal academic establishment that forms part of the “Service Public Fédéral de Programmation Politique scientifique” (Belgian Federal Science Policy Office). The institution includes the “Archives Générales du Royaume” in Brussels and 17 State Archives that are distributed throughout the country.
  
  
• The State Archives ensure the proper preservation of archive documents produced and managed by the state authorities. For this purpose, the State Archives issue directives and recommendations, conduct inspections, organises training for civil servants and act as an advisory body for the construction and preparation of premises for the conservation of archives and for the organisation of archive management within a public authority.
  
  
• The State Archives obtain and preserve (following sorting) archive documents that are at least 30 years old from courts, tribunals, public authorities, notaries and from the private sector and private individuals (companies, politicians, associations and societies, influential families, etc. that have played an important role in society). They ensure that public archives are transferred according to strict archive standards.
  
  
• One of the key tasks of the institution is to make these archive documents available to the public, while respecting the privacy of some information. By means of its 19 reading rooms, the State Archives make an infrastructure available to a wide public. The service available directly to the public via the internet (the digital reading room) is one of the institution’s key priorities.
  
  
• One of the key tasks of the academic staff is to make accessible the immense quantity of archives that have only recently become available for research, which are located in the institution. This is made possible by the creation of academic search tools (search paths, archive overviews and guides, inventories, institutional studies). It is important that these facilities enable the researcher to find the desired information as quickly and accurately as possible.
  
  
• The State Archives are a centre of expertise for historical and archival information. The academic staff employed by the State Archives conduct on-going academic research into archive management, the preservation of information and institutional history of the establishments that produce archives. For this purpose, it is essential that the above-mentioned tasks are completed in a reasonable manner - in other words, the acquisition, preservation, availability for research and accessibility of archives.
  
  
• Another important role of the State Archives is to co-ordinate archive policy at national level and to work on the development of effective partnerships at international level.